Techniques or methods for synthesizing or adjusting materials to achieve desired properties may require costly and/or complicated processing techniques. For example, removing oxygen from a metal oxide may change the properties of the material. As nonlimiting examples, cobalt oxide (CoO) may demonstrate an increased magnetic moment when oxygen is removed, and copper oxide (CuO, Cu2O) may shift from an insulator to a conductor once oxygen is removed.
Magnetic films may be utilized for data storage purposes, such as in magnetic recording media, magnetic random access memory, or the like. CoPd multilayers have been studied for many decades as a candidate material for high density magnetic recording. As an example, some methods may involve: 1) pre-patterning a silicon substrate using directed self-assembly and reactive ion etching; and 2) depositing CoPd film via sputtering. Parameters of such methods are tuned to produce a high quality film, such as seed layer engineering, Co to Pd layer thickness ratio, number of layer repeats, and deposition conditions such as pressure, power, temperature and rate. Researchers have systematically adjusted these parameters to produce high quality CoPd multilayers for bit patterned media (BPM). However, it is still difficult to economically produce films with low enough defect density for BPM.
Thus, there is a desire for systems and methods to locally reduce metal oxides to produce materials with desired properties. The systems and methods for locally reducing metal oxides discussed herein utilize a reducing agent that aids removal of oxygen and low temperature annealing of a metal oxide to produce materials with demonstrating desired properties. In some embodiments, the abovementioned method for locally reducing metal oxides may be utilized to produce quality BPM.